Max Savikangas(1969)

Max Savikangas has composed 105 works of instrumental chamber music, orchestral music, vocal music, electroacoustic music and combinations of these. He is internationally recognized as a prominent composer, especially for his own instrument Viola. Max Savikangas writes: «I enjoy contemporary music with its constantly renewing challenges, improvising, listening to the world, experimenting with sounds - and composing. As a composer-musician I have wanted to expand the means of expression of my own instrument with new playing techniques and experimental live-electronics, which has led to studying these possibilities of other instruments as well. The seeds of my compositions often emerge as a result of (instru)mental improvisation, of savouring all kinds of sound events of the world and of tentavive computer sound processing experiments. As a rule, some of these spontaneous ideas thus found begin to lead a life of their own in my mind, ending up as the points of departure for my written-out and/or media compositions. I believe that timbre in contemporary music is equal to melody, harmony and rhythm and it should be understood as an umbrella term, covering all components of a sound event. At best, different hoots, wails, hisses, gushes, whispers, crackles and buzzes are by no means effects or seasoning added afterwards to the music, but they are an organic and sensual part of expression.»